Prevalence and acceptance of male circumcision as hiv Prevention among male college students, gambella region 2014 Western ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin (or prepuce) from the penis.Male circumcision is effective in reducing HIV acquisition by approximately 60% among males during heterosexual sex. Based on this in 2007, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS recommended the inclusion of male circumcision in HIV prevention programs, especially in countries with generalized heterosexual HIV epidemics, high HIV prevalence, and low prevalence of male circumcision. The indigenous ethnic groups of Gambella region have not been practicing traditional male circumcision and the prevalence of HIV is highest of all regions of the country. Now free voluntary medical male circumcision service is availiable in most government health facilities. However availability of intervention by itself does not mean that it is acceptable by the target population so this study aims to assess the prevalence and level of acceptance of male circumcision and factors associated among indigenous male college students. Methodology:. Institutional based crossectional study design was conducted among 782 male indigenous college students from March 28 -29 in Gambella Town. From four colleges two colleges were selected by lottery method. Data were collected using self administrated structured and pre-tested questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi data 3.1 and16.0 soft wares respectively. Frequency tables, graphs and descriptive summaries were used to describe the study variables. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used. We used P-value < 0.05 of 95% CI level as a cut of point to see the strength of association. Result: Among 736 respondents 317(43.1%) respondents were circumcised.Religion, having a circumcised friend, knowledge on male circumcision, perceived benefits for penile hygiene, STIs prevention and HIV prevention. Fear of pain and fear of complication were also determinants of male circumcision. One hundred seventy (42.4%) of uncircumcised respondents were willing to accept circumcision. Having circumcised friend, perceived benefits of male circumcision for (penile hygiene, STIs prevention and women preferance), fear of pain and cultural acceptability were determinants of acceptance of male circumcision among uncircumcised respondents. Conclusionand and Recommendation: Eventhough prevalence of male circumcision was high compared to similar studies, its’nt not such satisfactory greater than half of the study participants still uncircumcised. The level of acceptance of male circumcision was low compared with other studies. The benefit of male circumcision in enhancing penile hygiene and reducing chance of getitng STIs and HIV were facilitators to be circumcised and willing to accept circumcision. Fear of pain was a major barrier of male circumcision. Interventions should be focused on promoting the benefits and eliminating the myths of